Auburn Hills, Mich., With the coveted Le Mans 24 Hour Trophy securely residing in Ingolstadt, Audi Sport Team Joest heads to the Nurburgring on July 9th to continue the quest for the overall American Le Mans Series Championship.

Round four of the ALMS series, and the final European race before the field heads the United States, is being taken very seriously by the team. "Of course we cannot rest on our laurels after Le Mans. Our preparation for the Nurburgring round will be just as intense and on Friday before the race we will test there again to try out several setups specifically for this circuit," said Reinhold Joest, team director of Audi Sport Team Joest.

For Le Mans winner Frank Biela, the Nurburgring is a home coming, "although I am totally familiar with the Ring from my many races there, this will be a premiere for me, I've never competed here in a Sportscar."

The Nurburgring, a 14 turn, undulating 4.5 km long road circuit, is situated in the beautiful Eifel area of Germany, close to Belgium and Luxembourg, and not far from the city of Cologne.

Audi will campaign the new R8's for the remainder of the season, Allan McNish comments on how the car will behave around the Ring. "There are a couple of tricky corners but the rest of the circuit is relatively straight forward. I believe the nature of the circuit, which is smooth and features many third and fourth gear corners, will ideally suit the new R8's."

"The focus for the team the first third of the season has been Le Mans. With that prize in our possession, we are going to focus on winning the series championship," said Len Hunt, head of Audi Sport North America. "Le Mans was the ultimate, now we want to add the series trophy to our Sebring and Le Mans prizes to complete our own little triple crown."

Audi R8 lineup for the Nurburgring:

#77 Allan McNish/Rinaldo Capello

#78 Frank Biela/Emanuele Pirro/Michele Alboreto

Audi Sport North America is the motorsports arm of Audi of America, Inc.